Aider vs Claude Code

AI Pair Programming in Your Terminal

Aider lets you pair program with LLMs to start a new project or build on your existing codebase.

Features

Cloud and local LLMs

Aider works best with Claude 3.7 Sonnet, DeepSeek R1 & Chat V3, OpenAI o1, o3-mini & GPT-4o, but can connect to almost any LLM, including local models.

Maps your codebase

Aider makes a map of your entire codebase, which helps it work well in larger projects.

100+ code languages

Aider works with most popular programming languages: python, javascript, rust, ruby, go, cpp, php, html, css, and dozens more.

Git integration

Aider automatically commits changes with sensible commit messages. Use familiar git tools to easily diff, manage and undo AI changes.

Use in your IDE

Use aider from within your favorite IDE or editor. Ask for changes by adding comments to your code and aider will get to work.

Images & web pages

Add images and web pages to the chat to provide visual context, screenshots, reference docs, etc.

Voice-to-code

Speak with aider about your code! Request new features, test cases or bug fixes using your voice and let aider implement the changes.

Linting & testing

Automatically lint and test your code every time aider makes changes. Aider can fix problems detected by your linters and test suites.

Copy/paste to web chat

Work with any LLM via its web chat interface. Aider streamlines copy/pasting code context and edits back and forth with a browser.

Getting Started

python -m pip install aider-install
aider-install

## Change directory into your codebase
cd /to/your/project

## DeepSeek
aider --model deepseek --api-key deepseek=<key>

## Claude 3.7 Sonnet
aider --model sonnet --api-key anthropic=<key>

## o3-mini
aider --model o3-mini --api-key openai=<key>

See the installation instructions and usage documentation for more details.

More Information

Documentation

• Installation Guide
• Usage Guide
• Tutorial Videos
• Connecting to LLMs
• Configuration Options
• Troubleshooting
• FAQ

Community & Resources

• LLM Leaderboards
• GitHub Repository
• Discord Community
• Release notes
• Blog

Kind Words From Users

• "My life has changed... Aider... It's going to rock your world." — Eric S. Raymond on X
• "The best free open source AI coding assistant." — IndyDevDan on YouTube
• "The best AI coding assistant so far." — Matthew Berman on YouTube
• "Aider ... has easily quadrupled my coding productivity." — SOLAR_FIELDS on Hacker News
• "It's a cool workflow... Aider's ergonomics are perfect for me." — qup on Hacker News
• "It's really like having your senior developer live right in your Git repo - truly amazing!" — rappster on GitHub
• "What an amazing tool. It's incredible." — valyagolev on GitHub
• "Aider is such an astounding thing!" — cgrothaus on GitHub
• "It was WAY faster than I would be getting off the ground and making the first few working versions." — Daniel Feldman on X
• "THANK YOU for Aider! It really feels like a glimpse into the future of coding." — derwiki on Hacker News
• "It's just amazing. It is freeing me to do things I felt were out my comfort zone before." — Dougie on Discord
• "This project is stellar." — funkytaco on GitHub
• "Amazing project, definitely the best AI coding assistant I've used." — joshuavial on GitHub
• "I absolutely love using Aider ... It makes software development feel so much lighter as an experience." — principalideal0 on Discord
• "I have been recovering from ... surgeries ... aider ... has allowed me to continue productivity." — codeninja on Reddit
• "I am an aider addict. I'm getting so much more work done, but in less time." — dandandan on Discord
• "Aider... blows everything else out of the water hands down, there's no competition whatsoever." — SystemSculpt on Discord
• "Aider is amazing, coupled with Sonnet 3.5 it's quite mind blowing." — Josh Dingus on Discord
• "Hands down, this is the best AI coding assistant tool so far." — IndyDevDan on YouTube
• "[Aider] changed my daily coding workflows. It's mind-blowing how ...(it)... can change your life." — maledorak on Discord
• "Best agent for actual dev work in existing codebases." — Nick Dobos on X
• "One of my favorite pieces of software. Blazing trails on new paradigms!" — Chris Wall on X
• "Aider has been revolutionary for me and my work." — Starry Hope on X
• "Try aider! One of the best ways to vibe code." — Chris Wall on X
• "Freaking love Aider." — hztar on Hacker News
• "Aider is hands down the best. And it's free and opensource." — AriyaSavakaLurker on Reddit
• "Aider is also my best friend." — jzn21 on Reddit
• "Try Aider, it's worth it." — jorgejhms on Reddit
• "I like aider :)" — Chenwei Cui on X
• "Aider is the precision tool of LLM code gen... Minimal, thoughtful and capable of surgical changes ... while keeping the developer in control." — Reilly Sweetland on X
• "Cannot believe aider vibe coded a 650 LOC feature across service and cli today in 1 shot." - autopoietist on Discord
• "Oh no the secret is out! Yes, Aider is the best coding tool around. I highly, highly recommend it to anyone." — Joshua D Vander Hook on X
• "thanks to aider, i have started and finished three personal projects within the last two days" — joseph stalzyn on X
• "Been using aider as my daily driver for over a year ... I absolutely love the tool, like beyond words." — koleok on Discord
• "Aider ... is the tool to benchmark against." — BeetleB on Hacker News
• "aider is really cool" — kache on X

Claude Code

Claude Code is an agentic coding tool that lives in your terminal, understands your codebase, and helps you code faster by executing routine tasks, explaining complex code, and handling git workflows -- all through natural language commands. Use it in your terminal, IDE, or tag @claude on Github.

Learn more in the official documentation.

Get started

[!NOTE]
Installation via npm is deprecated. Use one of the recommended methods below.

For more installation options, uninstall steps, and troubleshooting, see the setup documentation.

1. Install Claude Code:

   MacOS/Linux (Recommended):

   curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash
   

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   Homebrew (MacOS/Linux):

   brew install --cask claude-code
   

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   Windows (Recommended):

   irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex
   

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   WinGet (Windows):

   winget install Anthropic.ClaudeCode
   

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   NPM (Deprecated):

   npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
   

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2. Navigate to your project directory and run claude.

Plugins

Anthropic's Claude Code plugins are developed in claude-plugins-official. See the plugins directory for more about plugins.

Reporting Bugs

We welcome your feedback. Use the /bug command to report issues directly within Claude Code, or file a GitHub issue.

Connect on Discord

Join the Claude Developers Discord to connect with other developers using Claude Code. Get help, share feedback, and discuss your projects with the community.

Data collection, usage, and retention

When you use Claude Code, we collect feedback, which includes usage data (such as code acceptance or rejections), associated conversation data, and user feedback submitted via the /bug command.

How we use your data

See our data usage policies.

Privacy safeguards

We have implemented several safeguards to protect your data, including limited retention periods for sensitive information, restricted access to user session data, and clear policies against using feedback for model training.

For full details, please review our Commercial Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.